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British Rail
British Railways (British Rail, or BR), was the sole mainline railway operator in Britain (the United Kingdom), between 1948 and 1997. Renamed British Rail in 1964, it ran the railway very efficiently during its lifespan but this began to slip over it's final 20 years resulting in its privitisation during the 1990s, by July 1997 it ceased to exist entirely. History British Railways was formed to nationalise the "Big Four." This was GWR, SR, LNER and LMS. These companies each suffered from financial issues due to having a tough competition, lack of coverage, and tried monopolizing over one another. This was changed and fixed after World War II, with the Transport Act of 1947; in which the Big Four would be controlled by the government under the name British Railways. Then, there was the take over of the Big Four's assets by the British Transportation Commission on the 1st of January 1948. Things eventually declined. Such as: the loss of freight customers, and a huge decrease in freight traffic; and by 1955, British Railways recorded its first operating loss. In the end, the freight portion of BR was no longer necessary due to trucks taking over and having better coverage, and passenger trains being much more popular in the UK's crowded and distant cities. Hence, passenger travel being the main use of transportation from the 1950s until present day. The report later known as the "Modernisation Plan" came into existence in December 1954. This was to make the railways in the UK safer, more reliable and cost efficient. Major parts of this were: *The removal of unnecessary lines that were mirrors of other lines, basically making some lines bigger while ripping up others and funneling the traffic into the new enlarged lines; *'Dieselisation' and 'Electrification', when steam locomotives were gradually replaced by diesel locomotives and/or electric locomotives. *Newer rolling stock to be built to make traveling safer, and more pleasant. By 1968, there were only two steam locomotives running on British Rail, as it was known after 1965. In 1994, British Rail had come full circle. Because this was the start of privatisation of BR, this continued gradually until 1997 and by then, British Rail no longer existed. Trivia *Unlike the US, the UK no longer heavily relies on freight trains to deliver goods. The amount of freight traffic carried on the British railway network is far lower than was carried in the days of nationalisation. *BR originally planned on scrapping all of the historic locomotives and rolling stock from the original big four companies however, preservation societies, politicians and the general public understandably opposed this. *Originally, diesel locomotives were numbered in the steam locomotive series with a D prefixed to the 5 digit number. However this changed when TOPS was introduced. *During the British imperialization in India and South Africa, many steam locomotives were built and exported to help both nations become more productive and modern by helping them built railway networks. Most of the exported steam locomotives were very simple and easier to drive compared to their original counter-parts. Hence, having limited speed, simple controls, and they ironically had less flaws. Category:Companies Category:UK railways Category:United Kingdom Category:British Rail